Box watchers at Alphaliner are predicting the idle container fleet will more than double between now and the end of the year.
Alphaliner suggests the idle fleet could grow from the current 341,000 teu to hit 750,000 teu by the end of 2018. The analysts said the leap in idled tonnage was down to the reduction of the active fleet as the slack season approaches, coupled with the delivery of new-built tonnage and the low number of vessels scrapped.
The idle containership fleet has risen to 341,000 teu or 1.6% of the total fleet as at the end of July 2018 from a low of just 0.9% in June.
“The projected rise in the idle fleet is expected to have a negative impact on charter rates, even as spot freight rates have soared to their highest levels in 2018,” Alphaliner stated in its latest weekly report.
